37,050 A to Z Blog Posts – So Why Mine?

The A to Z Challenge is just around the corner, and although I’m not going to be using a theme to tie all my posts together, I was thinking about how I could make myself stand out this year. Think about it…at last count there were 1425 participants…all posting for 26 days…that equates to 37,050 blog posts hitting the blogosphere in April. That’s a LOT of material for you to choose from, so what can I do to convince as many of those 1425 participants, along with the people who follow along but don’t participate, to land on my humble blog?

Why is that so important? My answer to that is another question. Why do you think we do this in the first place? Sure there’s the challenge of it…just seeing if you can post 26 out of 30 days in April…and the camaraderie born from enduring such a feat together…but most of us are in it to increase our presence in the blogoshere. An interesting theme with a broad appeal might do the trick, but if you’re not into theme’s -- what are you to do?

I know…a contest…and one that’s structured in such a way to encourage repeat visits during the challenge! Eureka!

So here’s what I’m going to do. Everybody who comments on one of my blog post during the month of April will have their name put in a hat. Each post you comment on, your name goes into the hat again, for a maximum of 26 chances. But that’s not all. In each of my post I will bury a piece of personal information about myself, so you’ll actually have to read the post to find it. Then after the challenge is over I will post a DL quiz with 26 questions, the answers of which can be found in the A to Z posts, and anybody who emails me the correct 26 answers will have their number of chances in the hat doubled. So if you commented on 12 of my post and then answer all of the quiz questions correctly, your chances in that hat become 24.

Here’s the kicker…YOU MUST COMMENT ON AN MINIMUM OF 10 POSTS TO BECOME ELIGIBLE FOR THE DRAWING. I hate to see someone who comments just once steal away the prize from others who dedicated themselves.

And the prize for simply visiting my blog and commenting during the Challenge, chosen by way of random drawing from the hat…a $75 Amazon Gift Card!

Oh…also…I will be asking the winner how they learned of my A to Z contest. If they tell me they heard about it via a Blog Post/Tweet/Facebook update that pointed them in my direction, the referring blogger will also win a $25 Gift Certificate (with proof of promotion). So the more people you convince to participate, the greater your own chances of winning.

So there you have it…that’s WHY ME. I’m not sure which is more valuable, cold hard cash or some entertaining posts sure to tickle your funny bone, prove educational, or touch your emotions, but why not go for both?

Hope to see you inside the alphabet beginning next week!

PS. Our first Blog Blitz took place on Tuesday. PK Hrezo was smothered with 150+ comments and it was really fun to watch. If you missed the notification, then you’re not checking your email often enough…or there’s something wrong with the address you left me. If the latter is the case, leave me a comment with your correct address and I’ll get it straightened out before the next mission.